Tam_Lyn

I would love to attend! Unfortunately, there's a major anime con that weekend (Katsucon) and I have to go and help man the table for my webcomics group (www.tangentartists.com). It's one of our biggest and busiest cons, so I can't bail out on them. Maybe next time?

Thanks guys!

I have a fire/mace tank, but I'm pretty new to tanking. I was wondering what is generally considered the best way(s) to deal with knockback on a fire tank? I have an IO slotted (Steadfast Protection, I think it was), and although that helped a great deal in the 20s, I'm starting to get tossed around a bit again now that I'm in the 30s.

Am I doomed to taking Acrobatics (or Hover)? Is there an IO solution that I haven't found? I'll admit to not being all that well-versed in all the IOs out there...

Any other advice to a long-time player fairly new to tanking?

Thanks, o forum gurus!

I can't get the Updater to connect after the DBServer message...

My whole team got the double mapserve, from what I can tell...and I think we're all east coast (we were on Virtue)...donno if they're having issues getting back in, though.

Yep, kicked, got back in, immediately kicked again, now the updater is stuck trying to connect... DBServer down...

I play a lot of defenders, and for some of them the option of having team and solo builds has been a tremendous boost. I'm giving all my toons with powers that only affect allies a solo build that has none of those powers in it and concentrates on other powers that make them able to solo. My Emp/Rad can solo again! Hallelujah!

The cost of slotting enhancements twice is rather prohibitive, but I don't have a good suggestion for fixing that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about IO sets when I get that far on one of my multi-builds...be very very broke all the time, I guess. This is particularly rough on lower level toons who haven't had the time or luck to build up a lot of money yet. We do not all pan-handle or have rich level 50 friends on every server willing to give us handouts at the drop of a hat...

The only thing about the system I really dislike is the 15 minute timer. It is annoying, when your solo/team status can change unpredictably, that you can't roll with the flow and switch out builds as-needed. I think having to run to the trainer to switch builds is quite sufficient to prevent exploitation of the system without also having the 15 minute wait.

In addition, the 15 minute wait is EXTREMELY annoying when you are trying to train, especially when you have things you'd like to slot on the *other* build in your tray, which you can't use without committing to that build for 15 minutes. That really stinks. IMO it is the worst thing about the system. I'd like to see the timer done away with completely.

I think joining a team and telling them "one sec, running to a trainer to switch my build" is acceptable and sufficient to prevent abuse, whereas "sorry, no buffs or shields for another 10 minutes, and then I need to bail and run to the trainer to switch to my team build" is NOT acceptable. Odds are really good the team invited the defender (or controller) specifically for those team-only powers...

So to sum up, it is an awesome feature, I'm very happy to have it, I wish there was a way to mitigate the expense of slotting everything twice, and the 15 minute timer is frustrating and a royal pain in the backside - but I'll still use multi-builds and be thankful for the option.

Thanks!

Great guide! Thanks for writing it. My Dark/Cold is only level 18, but I agree that it is a very effective and fun combination.

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I don't know if this has been mentioned but the 1 hp hospital trip just slows things down. Its a real annoyance. Can't we have full health or at least half?

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QFT

Also, somewhere to buy break frees would make a tremendous difference for some of us. I don't know how many times I was TPed, mezzed, and 2-shotted. Lots of times. It's not fun to continually faceplant. I got off various powers versus the various individuals who did this to me -- I had rolled a dark/psi defender (b/c that's what my main is), not expecting to be great in PVP -- but knockback, fear, and hold attacks NEVER affected anyone I used them on in a desperate attempt not to get mezzed and gacked again.

The only thing that did work was Howling Twilight, on those occasions it was up. I often died anyway because it takes a little while to go off, but at least I messed up my attacker enough that others could finish him off easily.

Now, if I had break frees available -- the "target nearest enemy + break free + announce my attacker in team chat + Howling Twilight" macro would have been born, and I might have had a chance.

Also, why did I end a 2-3 hour session with a bar of debt and about 2 xp? Okay, Ghost Widow killed me with a sidelong glance once, but 90% of the time it was other PCs... PVP + debt + defender = no PVP for me, thank you very much.

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Nope, not changed.

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I think I love you.

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I hope that's plutonic.

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plutonic

Of deep igneous or magmatic origin: plutonic rocks.

...sooo, an Igneous sort of love, huh?

(you meant "platonic" BTW, but thanks for the laugh)

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Just wondering how much I have to do before the deadlines hits. I have too many alts, you see...

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Actually, I may have a way of getting these badges within a short time.

I'm just waiting for an answer from a PM to Positron if what I am proposing may get me banned. (It's better to get permsission than forgiveness).

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Intriguing. If you don't post about it here, please send me a PM if your scheme works out.

This may be a stupid question (and sorry about going back on topic ) but... does anyone know if, once you have unlocked DJ Zero as a contact, you can do his missions after February 22? Or do his missions, and the possibility of getting Toothbreaker, go away along with Ganymede and Scratch?

Just wondering how much I have to do before the deadlines hits. I have too many alts, you see...

Well, since this is still going and we're doing 15 now...

1. Somebody to Love (live, from Queen on Fire) by Queen
2. I Recommend Instincts (from Vision of Escaflowne) by Yoko Kanno
3. [kanji I can't read] no Dragon from Sohryuden AKA Legend of the Dragon Kings
4. Madrigal from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev
5. Spy from Cowby Bebop by The Seatbelts
6. Tie Your Mother Down (live) by Queen + Paul Rodgers
7. Song of the Dunadan by Glass Hammer
8. [more kanji I can't read] from Record of Lodoss War (TV)
9. Ice Dance from Edward Scissorhands by Danny Elfman
10. Black/White by Mr. Mister
11. Various Cues from Bugs Bunny Films (medley) by Carl Stalling
12. Grande valse brillante, opus 18 by Chopin
13. Terminal Frost by Pink Floyd
14. Script for a Jester's Tear by Marillion
15. Praludium und Fugue uber das Motiv B.A.C.H. by Liszt


Looks like it is a bit of a soundtrack day today for iTunes!

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Ohmtown! Wow, a Rock and Rule reference. Don't see that everyday. I adore that movie, but most people have never heard of it.

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Actually, Unearthed Films just released it on DVD in the U.S.. I bought my copy a few days ago.

Mmm... Back before Debbie Harry ruined her voice with all the coke. (*sigh*)

Back in the day, you could actually order a VHS copy from Nelvana. It cost $85 US or $115 Can. They had a tiny, but steady demand, so they pulled a transfer from a master every time they managed to ship a copy.

20 years ago (*wince*) my parents never understood my need for $85 for a video tape they had never heard of, and by the time I was in a position to order for myself, Nelvana would no longer ship it. I'm quite happy I finally managed to get a copy.

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Heh. Got my copy from a video store going out of business. It made the rounds of our gaming group and became the source of some of our standard lines of dialogue... "Be nice, or be dog food."

Then I made the mistake of showing it to my teenage daughter. Liked it so much she swiped it when she went off to college.

Oh well, if the DVD is out, I'll make sure to add it to my Amazon wish list.

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Yup, it is out on DVD. I saw it in Best Buy the other day, in the Anime section! I have to order one of the 2-disk editions for myself; my ol' college gang and I can pretty much quote the whole movie verbatim.

From my 4-5 stars Best of Everything playlist (2,108 songs), on random:

1. (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care (live) performed by Queen

Squeee! Seeing Queen in March! They are my fave band of all time! I worship Brian May! Soooo excited! Ahem. Back to the list.

2. Living in the Past by Jethro Tull
3. Gloria - qui tollis peccata mundi from the Grosse messe c-moll KV427 by Mozart
4. Handwriting by The Rachels
5. Dear Friends by Queen
6. Animal by Pearl Jam
7. Somebody to Love by Queen (This is random? C'mon iTunes...)
8. Glass Spider by David Bowie
9. Prelude: Le vent dans la plaine by Debussy
10. Aoi Hitomi (from Vision of Escaflowne) by Yoko Kanno

And to make up for the extra Queen songs...
11. Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing) by Sting
12. Save A Prayer by Duran Duran

Truly random, from all 12,329 tracks in my library:

1. The Island by Hawkwind
2. the 12th track from the 11th CD of the unabridaged Return of the King audio book, performed by Rob Inglis
3. Terrapin by Bonobo
4. Trigger Happy by Weird Al
5. Nocturne in B, Op. 62, No. 1 by Chopin
6. Death of Anna (from the Red Violin) by John Corigliano
7. Road Rage by Da Vinci's Notebook
8. Auf meinen lieben Gott by Bach
9. When Tomorrow Comes by The Eurythmics
10. The Blacksmith by Steeleye Span

...which just goes to show why my co-workers are sometimes weirded out by my playlists. And it didn't even pick up any of my growing collection of prog rock.

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Inside story arcs it is more common. There is another Freak called Ohms-(something) who you run across a couple of times in one of the Sharkhead story arcs and you see some of the named Family personalities twice in the Port Oakes Family story arc.

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Ohmtown. He was a great assistant.

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Ohmtown! Wow, a Rock and Rule reference. Don't see that everyday. I adore that movie, but most people have never heard of it.

I recently had Fluffy cast DN on a mob, then miss him with TT. The mob ran and aggroed another group because of DN! Man, was that annoying! I was yelling "turn it off, idiot!" at poor Fluffy, but my only recourse was to quickly get over there and lock down/take out the runner. That has only happened once. I had assumed Fluffy's DN was not aggroing others...but maybe that only seemed to be true because they were usually stuck in TT...

Anyway, something to watch out for. It'd be a very mixed blessing if Fluffy's DN was AoE and this wasn't a bug...

You can change which powers you have chosen (and in what order) as well as where you have put all your slots with a respec. You can either earn one in-game (the Terra Volta trial) at certain levels, or you can wait for a new issue of CoH -- they usually give out a free respec with new issues (since they keep screwing around with powers). You might already have a free respec and not know it. To use it, type /respec.

Thanks for this guide, BN! Very informative! My main is a 36 dark/psi and the information in this guide will certainly help me make a more informed decision about my ancillary pools...still can't decide, but at least now I really know what I'm choosing between.

I am very impressed with the breadth and depth of this guide, since you touched on the power pools and ancillary power pools as well as the primary and secondary, and how they might all work together. Extremely helpful and informative.

Great guide! Thanks again!

I hadn't heard that! Gee, I won't feel so foolish for having slotted it. The animation time was terribly frustrating at lower levels, but it's not so much of a bother for me at higher levels (36 currently). It's my "gee, I have debuffed everything and the other attacks are all recharging, guess I'll use this one now" power.

I find the most beautiful 1-2-3 punch in my arsenal involves Psychic Scream. I'm a dark/psi defender, pretty balanced as I both solo and team. The fairly recent change to Tar Patch, which now lowers mob defenses as well as slowing them, is a great combo with Psychic Scream.

First I drop the Tar Patch, so the mobs all get stuck in a bunch (but trying to run out of the TP), then I Fearsome Stare (the cone fear attack in DM) the mobs, so they all start cowering in fear. Then I hit them with a Psychic Scream for even more damage than usual. Sure, some of them will then take a pot shot at me before going back to cowering. If I'm really worried about that, I can throw up Darkest Night before the Scream, but usually with the -attack rate of the Scream and my Shadowfall, they won't all take the potshot, and most of them will miss. It's a beautiful thing *sniff*. Just had to share that.

And thanks for this guide! Think I'll have room for one more Psionic Blast power in my build, but I really wasn't sure which of the remaining ones would be best. (I have MB, Psionic Lance, Psychic Scream, and TK Blast.) Sounds like I need to give Will Domination very serious consideration!

Thanks for this change!

I was curious if there is any possibility of seeing something else -- pretty much anything else -- added to powers (of which SR has quite a few) that only take one type of enhancement.

I'm not really against ED -- I'm totally willing to give it a chance -- but then, I have few toons that have more than 2-3 of the same type of enhancement slotted in any given power. However, powers that only take one type of enhancement, such as these, or those that effectively only take one type of enhancement (end red and recharge not really being "secondary effects" and also not being needed on some of these powers) feel kind of vanilla, left out in the cold, not as interesting.

I'd love to see enhanceable secondary effects on some of these powers! It's kind of sad to know that at lvl 15, I've already totally slotted the defenses I have already taken with my SR scrapper -- with 3 slots. There's no reason to ever put more slots in those powers. In contrast, my dark miasma defender has so many slotting options that getting 3 slots instead of a power in the 30s was a real treat! I'm afraid my SR scrapper isn't going to be feeling that way when he hits those levels.

Not a big deal, I guess, but hey, it can't hurt to ask and to let you know how I feel about it.

Oh, and any chance of reducing the difficulty of Heroic? I am one of those semi-casual gamer types, and lately Heroic has been proving a bit overly difficult for my toons without a team (and sometimes even then, if it's a small team). I don't always have time to search for a team, and sometimes you just can't find one.

Also, I hate to join a team then have to quit after 1 mission because of time constraints (especially if we do my mission...I feel like a bit of a heel for not being able to help with anyone else's mission). And I really dislike joining a team if I know I will have to leave suddenly, say, sometime in the next hour. I hate leaving a team in the lurch, in the middle of a mission that instanced for X people, and now my leaving puts them at X-1 people. But Heroic has seemed awfully hard lately, especially pre-30s. Just sayin'.

Thanks for your time and sorry for rambling! And thanks for a really fun game! CoV beta has also been tons of fun (even if it has been the motherlode of all lag)!

I heard so many discouraging things about MMOs -- kill-stealing, player-killers, and so on -- that I had never been willing to try one. My friends encouraged me to give City of Heroes a go, and I'm glad they did. Thanks for making a game that encourages player cooperation instead of player killing! Having a higher-level swoop in to kill you and take your stuff would not be fun; having a higher-level swoop in to heal and buff you during a tough fight is really cool. Being that higher-level is even cooler! It really makes one feel heroic!

So thanks for a fantastic game! Thanks that I can play with my friends no matter which toons we are logged in with through SKing and exemplaring. Thus far all the updates have been interesting and well done, and I can hardly wait for Issue 4!

Kudos, also, on the presentation, customer support, graphics, settings, and wonderfully detailed background. This is a wonderful game!